Romantic Period Composers

Franz Schubert
– was widely acknowledged as a composer in his lifetime
– was a very self-critical, which accounts for his meager output
– produced his greater works after the age of forty
– was the first great master of the romantic art song

was the first great master of the romantic art song

Schubert wrote a number of symphonies and chamber works that are comparable in power and emotional intensity to those of his idol,
– Beethoven
– Berlioz
– Mozart
– Haydn

Beethoven

Schubert’s primary source of income came from his

musical compositions

Which of the following is not true?
– Franz Schubert led a bohemian existence, living with friends because he had no money to rent a room of his own
– Schubert labored at great length over each of his compositions, which accounts for his small output.
– At the time of his death, Schubert’s reputation was mainly that of a fine song composer
– In addition to symphonies, operas, string quartets and other chamber works, Schubert composed over 600 songs

Schubert labored at great length over each of his compositions, which accounts for his small output.

Schubert’s songs number more than

600

Schubert wrote compositions in every musical genre except
– string quartetes
– piano concertos
– symphonies
– operas

piano concertos

Schubert was eighteen years old when he composed the song Erlkönig, set to a poem by
– Schubert himself
– Heinrich Heine
– Victor Huge
– Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

The pain’s relentless in Erlkonig unifies the episodes of the song and suggests the

galloping horse

Music criticism was a source of income for both Hector Berlioz and

Robert Schumann

Robert Schumann founded and edited the New Journal of Music in order to

promote musical originality and combat the commercial trash that flooded the market.

As a writer and critic, Robert Schumann

All answers are correct (All answers are correct. Wrote appreciative reviews of young "radical" composers like Chopin and Berlioz. Tried to combat the commercial trash that flooded the market. Founded and edited the New Journal of Music.)

Which of the following is not typical of Robert Schumann’s works?

They are all written for piano

During the first ten years of his creative life, Schumann published only

Piano pieces

Which of the following statements regarding Robert Schumann is not true?

Schumann’s short piano pieces often express a wide variety of moods.

Robert Schumann’s Carnaval is a(n)

Cycle of piano pieces

Chopin expressed his love of Poland by composing polonaises and

Mazurkas

While in Paris, Chopin

earned a good living by teaching piano to the daughters of the rich

Most of Chopin’s pieces

are exquisite miniatures

Chopin’s Revolutionary Étude develops the pianist’s left hand because

the left hand must play rapid passages throughout.

Which of the following is not true?

Chopin’s piano études, compositions designed to help a performer master specific technical difficulties, are primarily technical exercises without much musical value.

A composer who earned his/her living as a violin virtuoso was
– Clara Chumann
– Niccolo Paganini
– Robert Schumann
– Frederic Chopin

Niccolo Paganini

As a youth, Franz Liszt was influenced by the performances of
– Richard Wagner
– Hector Berlioz
– Robert Schumann
– Niccolo Paganini

Niccolo Paganini

A romantic composer who earned his living as a touring virtuoso was
– Franz Liszt
– Hector Berlioz
– Frederic Chopin
– Franz Shubert

Franz Liszt

During his teens and twenties, Franz Liszt lived in

Paris

Until the age of thirty-six, Franz Liszt toured Europe as a virtuoso
– pianist
– conductor
– cellist
– all answers

Pianist

Liszt abandoned his career as a traveling virtuoso to become court conductor at ___ where he championed works by contemporary composers.
– Rome
– Weimar
– Paris
– Budapest

Weimar

The writer whose literary works greatly inspired Franz Liszt was
– William Shakespeare
– Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
– Robert Schumann
– Marie d’Agoult

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Liszt piano works are characterized by
– an unprecedented range of dynamics
– rapid octaves and daring leaps
– arpeggios
– all answers

all answers

The composer who developed the symphonic poem was

Franz Liszt

The 1844 Treatise on Modern Instrumentation and Orchestration that signaled the recognition of orchestration as an art in itself was written by

Hector Berlioz

All of the following romantic composers were also virtuoso instrumentalists giving solo recitals except

Hector Berlioz

Johannes Brahms

was a close friend of Clara and Robert Schumann.

The German master _____________ recommended Dvořák’s music to his own publisher, resulting in a rapid spread of Dvořák’s fame.

Johannes Brahms

Antonin Dvořák’s music was first promoted by

Johannes Brahms

In Vienna, Johannes Brahms

All the above

Which of the following is not true?

One of Brahms’s musical trademarks is his exotic orchestration

In comparison to some earlier composers, Brahms’s musical output may be considered small. This is explained in part by the fact that Brahms

was extremely critical of his own work, and endlessly revised his compositions.

Music critics of the day pitted Brahms’s fondness for traditional forms against

Wagner’s innovative music dramas.

Brahms wrote masterpieces in many musical forms, but never any
– art songs
– operas
– choral works
– chamber music

operas

Brahms’s works, though very personal in style, are rooted in the music of
– Joseph Haydn
– Wolfgang Mozart
– Beethoven
– All

All of the above

Brahms’s musical trademarks included

The use of two notes against three

The original source for the theme of the fourth movement of Brahms’s Fourth Symphony was a

cantata by J. S. Bach.

The fourth movement of Brahms’s Fourth Symphony is a _____________, a baroque variation form.

Passacaglia

Bedrich Smetana

was the founder of Czech national music

Smetana grew up when Bohemia was under ____________ domination.

Austrian

Smetana’s most popular opera is

The Bartered Bride

Even though Smetana was deaf at the time, he composed a musical work depicting Bohemia’s main river as it flows through the countryside. The name of the river, and the musical composition, is the

Moldau

Which of the following is not true?

Smetana passed the last few years of his life teaching and conducting in Prague.

Antonin Dvořák __________ quoted actual folk tunes.

Rarely

Dvořák "found a secure basis for a new national [American] musical school" in

African American spirituals

In 1892, Dvořák went to ___________, where he spent almost three years as director of the National Conservatory of Music.

New York

Antonin Dvořák’s Symphony No. 9
– is his most famous work
– is subtitled From the New World
– glorifies both the Czech and American folk spirit
– all answers are correct

All the answers are correct

In the first movement of the New World Symphony, Dvořák

Composed a theme that resembles swing low, sweet chariot

In the second movement of Dvořák’s New World Symphony, the nostalgic quality of the melody of the famous largo movement is heightened by the timbre of the

English horn

Most significant Finnish composer

Jean Sibelius

Almost composed the Finnish national anthem

Jean Sibelius

Libretti that fanned the public’s hatred for its Austrian overlords were deliberately chosen by the compose

Guiseppe Verdi

Verdi studied music in _________, the city where Italy’s most important opera house, La Scala, is located.

Milan

Verdi’s first great success, an opera with strong political overtones, was
– Oberto
– Aida
– Nabucco
– La Traviata

Nabucco

Critics were often scandalized by the subject matter of Verdi’s operas because they

seemed to condone rape, suicide, and free love.

Verdi’s great comic masterpiece, written when he was seventy-nine, is
– Il Trovatore
– Otello
– Falstaff
– Aida

Falstaff

The librettist of Giuseppe Verdi’s operas Otello and Falstaff was

Arrigo Boito

Verdi’s opera commissioned to commemorate the completion of the Suez canal is

Aida

Which of the following operas is not by Verdi?
– La Traviata
– Cavalleria rusticana
– Il Trovatore
– Otello

Cavalleria rusticana

Verdi mainly composed operas

To entertain a mass public

The soul of a Verdi opera is
– extensive thematic development
– expressive vocal melody
– the situation comedy
– atmospheric orchestral parts

Expressive vocal melody

Verdi’s later operas differ from his earlier ones in that they have
– less difference between aria and recitative
– greater musical continuity
– more imaginative orchestrations
– all the above

All the answers above

Rigoletto, the title role in Giuseppe Verdi’s opera, is all of the following except

The romantic lover

The famous aria La donna è mobile is taken from Verdi’s opera
– Rigoletto
– Aida
– Falstaff
– Il Trovatore

Rigoletto

Giacomo Puccini’s first successful opera was

Manon Lescaut

Which of the following operas was not composed by Giacomo Puccini?
– Madame Butterfly
– Tosca
– Turandot
– I Pagliacci

I Pagliacci

The movement in opera known as verismo is best exemplified by

Giacomo Puccini

Some of Puccini’s operas feature exoticism, as in his use of melodic and rhythmic elements derived from Japanese and Chinese music in his operas

Madame Butterfly and Turandot.

In Puccini’s La Bohème, Rodolfo is a young ___ and it takes place ___

Poet and Milan

Wagner’s preeminence was such that an opera house of his own design was built in _________________, solely for performances of his music dramas.

Bayreuth, Bavaria

Wagner envisioned the music drama as a Gesamtkunstwerk, or "universal art work," in which

All answers are correct

Which of the following is not true?

As a young man, Wagner spent many years studying music theory and developing a virtuosic piano technique.

The composer who had an overwhelming influence on the young Wagner was
– Johann Sebastian Bach
– Ludwig van Beethoven
– Robert Schumann
– Guiseppe Verdi

Beethoven

Wagner was appointed conductor of the Dresden opera mainly because of the success of his first opera
– The Ring of Nibelung
– Die Gotterdammerung
– Parisfal
– Rienzi

Rienzi

Which of the following operas was not composed by Richard Wagner?
– Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg
– Tristan and Isolde
– Fidelio
– Parisfal

Fidelio

The librettos to The Ring of the Nibelung were written by

Wagner, himself

Richard Wagner’s last opera was

Parisfal

A short musical idea associated with a person, object, or thought, used by Richard Wagner in his operas, is called

Leitmotif

Wagner called his works music dramas rather than operas because

All the answers above

Valhalla, in Wagner’s Ring cycle, is

The castle of the gods

Siegmund, in Wagner’s opera Die Walküre, is
– Seiglinde’s brother, then wife
– Wontan’s son by a mortal woman
– Siegfried’s father
– All answers

All the answers are correct

At the end of the first act of Wagner’s opera Die Walküre
– Sieglinde recognizes the stranger as her brother and renames him
– Sigmund draw the magical sword
– Siegmund embaraces Sieglinde with passionate
– All the answers

All the answers are correct

One of the immediate predecessors of expressionism was the composer

Richard Strauss

Richard Strauss’s operas Salome and Elektra were known for their

Chromatic and dissonant music

Mendelssohn is known as the man who rekindled an interested in the music of

Johann Sebastian Bach

Mendelssohn earned an international reputation, and rekindled an interest in the earlier composer’s music, by conducting the first performance since the composer’s death of

Bach’s St. Matthew Passion

The high point of Mendelssohn’s career was the triumphant premiere of his oratorio __ in England

Elijah

Mendelssohn wrote in all musical forms except
– symphonies
– operas
– string quartets
– oratorios

operas

The opening of Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto in E minor is unusual in that
– there is a trumpet fanfare intro
– the main theme is presented by the soloist
– there is a slow intro by the orchestra
– the orchestra presents the main theme without the soloist

the main theme is presented by the solist

In the first movement of Mendelssohn’s Concerto for Violin, the cadenza

appears at the end of the development section as a transition to the recapitulation

Hector Berloiz

– the writer who had a great impact on him: shakespeare – Fantastic Symphony reflects his love for the actress Harriet